All Forum Posts by: Joel Bongco

Quote from @Glenn N.:

Has anyone else had a problem finding a lawyer to review and add a few points to the promissory agreement and deed of trust. 

Aloha Glenn, my legal team does promissory notes and deeds of trusts for all our real estate projects.  Would love to help if you run into a dead end with finding legal resources.  They have their BAR credentials in California and Hawaii with reciprocity in Colorado.    

Quote from @Noah F.:

A family member quit claimed a property to me 5-10 years ago, and I leased it back to them. They've been nothing but a royal pain in my *** since then (including harassment and blackmail) and I'm at my wits end. Every lawyer I've met with locally has said it's too complicated / outside their purview because it involves estate / elder / tenant / civil law issues simultaneously. Hoping someone here knows a lawyer who can deal with probably the most complicated and insane situation you've ever heard of. 

Aloha Noah,  I have a legal team (in-house counsel) that loves to tackle big, hairy complex legal cases.  If you run into a wall and can't find any resources to help, please DM me if you want to jump on a call.   

Quote from @Byoung Bae:

My wife and I live in California and visit Hawaii fairly frequently (all islands). We are considering buying an investment property in Hawaii. What are people's thoughts on buying investment property in Hawaii?

We are open to all investment type (long-term, short-term, mid-term rentals). We were primarily looking at Turtle Bay area for short-term rentals.

Is it possible to break even with ~20% for long-term rentals?

if we go with short/midterm, is it possible to manage it ourselves remotely? My wife has more flexible schedule and availability to manage remotely, and we are interested in managing property but this is our first investment property.

Aloha Byoung,
Its over priced in the Turtle Bay area. I would also stay away from Pats at Punaluu.  I recommend the MTR market in cities such as Halawa, Pearl City, Salt Lake,  and Mililani are great neighborhoods.  We have severals flips in various stages that you may want to acquire. Please DM me and I can provide you with more details.  Mahalo!  Joel

Aloha @Barbara Cordon,  not all vacant houses are the same.   There is usually a story around why the house is vacant.

1. No Heirs  -  Title holder(s) pass away - no kids, no family.  No one pays the taxes -  thus eventually goes into a Tax foreclosure

2. Nostalgia - Family property, lots of memories, house is payed off.   Someone pays the taxes.  Family does not have money to renovate.  Sits there vacant, family will deal with it "later".

3.  Probate - Heirs don't have funds to initiate the probate process.  

Based on the scenarios above, your approach may differ.  1. Skip trace to find an Heir. Newspaper Archives and Obituaries are good sources to find the Heirs.  2.  Usually its the Baby Boomers and X'er that are motivated to sell.  I would try to connect with those family members.  3.  Offer to fund the probate with an option to purchase the property.   

I would door knock the owners and see if they are in scenarios 1, 2 or 3.  Please DM me if you need some additional tips.

Quote from @Deryck C.:

Thank you all so much for the advice, i think I'm going to skip the attorney and just spend that money on replacing the sewer line. I already spend tens of thousands on repairs the excavations and flooring i thought i can contact the person who's liable for this, but thanks again everyone for your honest advice! 

 Since you'll be doing that,  I would provision for a reverse clean-out since you are going to open things up anyway.  

Aloha @Deryck C.,  how far is the "Y" from the City Lateral?  You might want to have the line camera'ed if you haven't done so already.  I would also get some quotes to fix the current issue.  You may want to compare the cost of litigation to the cost of repairs.

Quote from @Patrick Q.:

Hi All,

I am in search of a CRM to start tracking where I am at with various properties and sellers/property owners information and past interaction records.

I am a one person investor organization and may add people to the team in the future.

Can anybody recommend a CRM that they are using currently that they are happy with?

Looking for something that will be around for a long time (so not looking for cheap apps that may not last).

Thank you everybody in advance for your help.

Aloha Patrick,  if you are not Tech Saavy,  FollowUpBoss is a great option.  There is a 14 day free trial so you can kick the tires and see if it works for you. If you need assistance with the setup, I can jump on a ZOOM call and help you configure the system.    Mahalo!  Joel  

@Ilayda Elmas - I invest both locally in Hawaii and out of state. I’ll walk you through our local flips and on the mainland so you can make an educated decision on which way to go.

@Alyson Anderson - Its a simple API connection.  I use Zapier  to pipe leads into FUB.  In Deal Machine,  I created a lead type  "In Marketing with FUB" which triggers Zapier to ZAP the Lead into a Deal Machine Pond.   To ensure no one takes your Deal Machine Lead, we add a Tag with your name on it.  Thus, when you are in FUB, you can create a Smartlist based on a Tag with your name on it  - Tag =  "Deal Machine Lead for John Doe".   You can also skip trace the lead in DM and have emails and phone numbers populated in FUB.  We use other lead sources  (Probate, Vacants, NODs, etc,) and ZAP them into FUB.   One stop shopping at its best!  @Gregory Schwartz -  being an IT guy, I have experience with HubSpot GHL, Podio, Salesforce, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Sugar, and Zendesk, you can't beat the simplicity of FUB!  If you are a solopreneur its a good tool to have.  If you have a team, its a must have! -  fewer collisions/conflicts in lead generation.  

@Alyson Anderson - I agree! It has been a game changer. My cohorts largely leverage the pond by state. We have a large group and we don't want to be chasing after the same leads and calling/texting/emailing spamming the homeowner. Thus, we keep the leads in the pond so that our team can see all the leads and who is working on it. The ponds are constantly being filled with new leads on a first come, first served perspective and you can run filters based on your search type. We've also integrated it with Deal Machine for D4D purposes. I do agree that it is designed for Real Estate Brokerages, however, it works for REI teams as well. No, you are not drinking the Kool-Aid. You can't beat the simplicity of it in comparison with other CRMs. I'd love to see your configuration - I can show you my config as well! Mahalo, Joel